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I had a demo of the new Mercedes ML350 where the salesman showed that when he remotely opened the back door he could stop it opening with the remote. I acknowledged that was a neat feature to keep from banging it on something overhead. So I went home and used the remote to open my large trunk and before it reached the top I pressed the remote again-sure enough the trunk lid stopped. This can save you a bang on your trunk lid in places with low ceilings.

You can also set your lift hatch for lower clearances to be safe, and should you want to raise it more, simply push it up all the way after it stops at the lower height. We keep ours at a height so that in our garage as well as public parking garages we don't have to worry about the low beams and ceilings, but simply push it up to full height when needed. Good tip on the remote though. Funny thing with the comfort access is that I don't think I've actually used the remote since I've had the car, since you can simply touch doors to open and pop the ligtback. It remains in my pocket all the time.

One thing I found out recently is that if you've got the cruise set and go down a long hill that normally might allow the vehicle to get considerably over the speed you've set, it will downshift on its own. The hill I first noticed this on was maybe a 4-mile grade, and it downshifted probably three gears to maintain the set speed. This is the first cruise control that I've had that would do that. Some might disconnect on their own if you got way outside the speed set, but not downshift.

I didn't know there was anything there. I just went out to check and sure enough. Thanks for the information. I guess that's the price for not reading the manual.

Actually two buttons, one on the right for popping the hatchback and one toward the left of center for popping the smaller "trunk like" lower hatch.

Also, did you know that as long as you have the remote on your person, you can lock your doors by pressing down on the ribbed part of the door handle with your hand? Pick a door, any door. I find it easier to squeeze the ribbed part and the bottom between thumb and forefinger. Also that you can unlock the doors by simply grabbing the door handle on any of the doors? Doing so on the drivers door will only unlock the drivers door, but grabbing any other door will unlock them all. That may coincide with the iDrive setting where one press of the remote unlocks only the drivers door but I don't know if that's true or not.

Makes life easier without ever having to use the remote for anything! Plus it amazes people you're with. I tell them it's a secret that the car just recognizes me by my body's electrical energy. I step back about ten feet and let them try it and nothing happens. Good for a few laughs.

Started playing with the Auto Hold feature yesterday. I've got a stop and go commute so it was nice to be able to take your foot off the brake the same way you take your foot off the gas in cruise. Automatically setting the parking brake when you turn the engine off (auto hold engaged) is also nice.

I don't think you actually press down on the ribbed section of the door handle, just touching it seems to work.

Overall, I find the door unlocking system a little confusing, need to read the manual. Again. I always seem to need to pull twice to get anything open (except the trunk).

Actually, touching it will work in most cases. However, in certain weather conditions, touching the ribbed section won't work, you actually need to apply a bit of pressure. I believe this is a glitch due to humidity or perhaps car washing? I don't know but it happens on occasion and other times not. Also, I found it may have little to do with body capacitance and more to do with RF conduction since it works with nitrile gloves on when waxing the car!

If the doors are locked, you have to pull the handles twice to open. That's a safety feature on BMW; even had it on my 328's. The first pull unlocks the door and the second unlatches it. Same whether you're inside or out. If the doors are already unlocked, a single pull will open them.

True. I forget that some vehicles didn't have some of the packages including the hatch lift, etc. I once thought so many of these features were standard until looking at all the asterisks in the owners manual.